Product Review
Originally I accidently posted this information as a reply to the closing of SFIO today and the subject line is misleading.
I just returned from a "smokeFREE" break with 3 of my testers. All 3 gave bad reviews and we did not see ANY LED action, we even thought they were airholes after we wanted to give up.
I then brought it inside sadly disappointed, as my next batch of testers lined up for tomorrow were supposed to be my nastiest critics and are my most hardcore smokers.
While sitting here at my desk failing to work, I set about trying to troubleshoot the issue, as that is how I make a living (thank GOD I don't do it via investing.) So while troubleshooting I was unscrewing and reseating the battery unit to the heating unit and Lo and Behold a damn blue light emitted from one of the perceived airholes.
Of course, being the professional problem solver that I am I set about investigating further. I WOULD NOT ADVISE THIS, but I carefully have inhaled directly from the heating unit with 90% lighting rating of the LED. However, once I add the filter, I struggle to get it to light. I then tried numerous "grip" techniques trying to create a greater "seal" of the filter to the heating unit and was able to generate roughly a 10% lighting rate. When it did light, I honestly felt something more than just the tea flavored filter (Virginia blend, and the flavor I actually find very pleasant.) The feeling was a tingling on my tounge, at the front on the top of the first 15% of my tongue and slightly on my lips. So the heating of the coil is CRITICAL for proper use of the unit, CRITICAL.
Here is the rub though. Either the seal or the filter simple do not function properly with my unit. I find the 90% LED lighting rate acceptable as it is improving as I get more familiar with the unit, unfortunately without the filter. As far as the pathetic 10% rate of success in getting the heating unit to light up and provide a successful inhalation, I am greatly disappointed.
The good news... Yes, there is good news. My previous posts mentioned with our first unit we had concerns about possible airflow or quality assurance testing. Well, since this unit is actually mine and not a friends, I have already put it through rigorous tests and feel that it is not an airflow or even heating unit quality issue. It goes back to an original assessment I did not make but recall another poster making. The filters, which I believe to be identical in stucture to the Smoker's Option filters, hamper the airflow to a noticable degree when the nicotine filters are applied to the heating unit.
Again, with no filter I light consistently, and with a filter I light seldom (tried various inhalation techniques as well with no noticable change in success/failure rate... But the good news is the heating and battery unti work great. It CAN work with the nicotine filters as I have witnessed 10% of the time. I am "assuming" the non-nicotice filters light the LED more consistently as I am also assuming the addition of the nicotine to the nanobead filter alters the density of the filter and inhibits airflow enough to interfere with proper ignition of the heating coil so the LED of the heating unit does not come on.
We can say I have a flawed unit, AGAIN (as our other unit not in my possession had the same issue.) However, this means we have a definate quality issue as we have one unit from prior to them being sold out and one from this new shipment, both bad. However, I think that is a misleading statement as I can get the unit to light consistently with no filter. Yes, that too could mean an issue with the heating unit but I suspect it is functioning as expected and thus not flawed, just not ideally designed to work with nicotine filled filters.
I am overall encouraged by my testing, as I see these as flaws that CAN be fixed, but MUST be addressed by SFI. For my smokers are sadly disappointed, and I can't convince them to retry testing because the light is simply not coming on consistently enough and I would consider my testers unduly frustrated.
I go back to my assessment from a couple of weeks ago, there is a need for minor modifications to improve compatability between the nicotince infused filters and the heating unit.
Description (Grade) Notes
Battery unit (B) To early to tell for sure, but the battery seems fine.
Heating unit (D) Needs to be modified to function better with nicotine infused filters.
Charger (A) Small, easy to use, works
Filters, Virginia (C) Great flavor to this user, but may inhibit airflow too much.
Could be poor seal, but most likely overall filter density inhibits proper airflow.
Shipping (A+) Quickly deliever, and FREE
Packaging (C+) Flimsy, but looks great. Overtime folks will actually use permanent cases anyways.
Yea, if they can work the bugs out on the airflow issues (which I can see as totally workable) I can bring this back to the first batch of testers. YES, I will be contacting customer service in the off chance they feel I have another defective unit, but I find this unlikely due to the rate of ignition with no filter applied.
P.S. Now for those who did not get the humor in my post yesterday, you will be totally miffed about why I posted this lengthy review. I post it more in the hopes that those close to SFI on this board will take our negative reviews back to your contacts at SFIO so they can use them constructively.
